Elementary-school children in first through fifth grade who live or go to school in Pacific Palisades are invited to participate in the town’s first spelling bee on January 22 at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center. This is a scored competition rather than a single-elimination event. In Round One, all participants will be asked to correctly write down a list of spelling words. Those sheets will be tabulated and the top 10 spellers from each grade will move to the second stage of competition. Here they will be asked to stand and spell a list of words aloud. All children who have made it to this stage will participate through the entire round.   Rounds one and two scores will then be tabulated and trophies awarded to the top three spellers in each grade. All participants will receive a Pali Bee T-shirt and a certificate of appreciation. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged. Please visit www:palibee.com. Event organizer Leslie Pereira told the Palisadian-Post: ‘I came to love spelling bees as a child growing up in Michigan in the 1970s, where they were common in elementary schools. ‘I got the idea of starting a local spelling bee after my son Ben (a second grader at Palisades Elementary) and I watched the movie ‘Spellbound’ together last summer,’ said Pereira, referring to the popular documentary about the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. ‘After Ben saw the movie he was excited about the idea of participating in a spelling bee,’ she said. ‘But when I searched online for an event in Southern California, there didn’t seem to be anything for him to participate in; everything was too far away, or aimed at older children.’ With her husband Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA who has written a book on academic legal writing and is a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel, the couple researched organizing a spelling bee. ‘We consulted many people and feel that we have come up with a good format for the spelling bee with a written spelling test and an oral spelling bee,’ Pereira said. ‘The oral portion will not be single-elimination as in a traditional spelling bee because we felt it would be too hard on kids this young, and might unfairly handicap kids who take a bit of time to warm up to speaking in front of strangers.’   Brittny Aspey, a former Palisades Elementary teacher who now runs Oceans Education, a tutoring and enrichment company, will compile and control the confidential spelling word lists. Palisadian-Post Editor Bill Bruns will join Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Carolyn Kuhl and William Highberger in judging the oral portion of the Palisades Spelling Bee. ‘We hope all the children who participate will have a lot of fun, and will learn a lot about spelling, friendly competition and public speaking,’ Pereira said. ‘So far we have sign-ups from Pali Elementary, Seven Arrows, St. Matthew’s and Corpus Christi. We would love to get sign-ups from all the schools.’
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